A warning and a prayer against future storms, do not destroy this stands as testament to the indomitable spirit of survivors confronted by the inexhaustible forces of nature. In this debut collection, Taylor Clement celebrates the joy and grit of living in the deep south during compound disasters brought on by climate change. These poems explore what happens when ancestral lands and family homes are gutted for years and sacred spaces become empty and unusable. The poems lay bare the threads that hold us together when everything else is gone. Part love song and part elegy, do not destroy this explores why people keep returning to places like Lake Charles.